PRIME Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim (PMX) is handling a humanly impossible task to put the country back on track after the country’s debt has hit an all-time high of RM1.5 tril.
Turning to the left, he has conservative Muslims hitting out at him. Pandering to the right, he gets the brickbats thrown at him by the leftists. It is easy for fence sitters to be influenced by both groups.
The same people who criticise him would not even dirty their hands or seek solutions to the problems. This has led one TikToker to lash out against Klang MP Ganabatirau Veraman and others by asking what they have done for the Indian community since 2008.
Whether the PMX survives to achieve his vision of a better Malaysia or otherwise will hinge on how he handles all the pressure that he is getting from both his friends and his nemesis.
Not a single person – whether in Barisan Nasional (BN), Perikatan Nasional (PN) or even Pakatan Harapan (PH) – has encountered such great resistance since 1998.
It is unlikely that we will have another Anwar who has been jailed twice, accused of being a spy for China, Israel and the Americans as PM.
Pundits have been hitting out at him for pandering to the conservative Malays, especially in the Northern states, yet unable to win their votes. Even when UMNO was only able to win 19 seats out of 107 seats contested, he was blamed.
Sky high expectations
Despite jetting around to reach out to the ordinary Malaysians and solving the water woes in Kedah, Kelantan and Sabah, the opposition in Perlis, Kedah and Kelantan has not only remained defiant but has even mooted the idea of using a different logo for this year’s Merdeka Day celebration.
While PMX acts on the ringleaders who are trying to use the people to achieve their political agenda, rather than assuming that Malay votes have shifted to PAS and Bersatu, we must all realise that there could be irregularities even in the statistics released by the Election Commission (EC).
The EC should scrutinise the statistics in the three Northern states to see if there were signs of cheating during the state polls.
The truth is there is a possibility of the deep state that is collaborating with those who have amassed great wealth. Their mission is to get rid of the PMX.
Perhaps it is time for the PMX to take stern actions against his real enemies who try to topple him and destabilise the unity government. Without doing this, the country would once again descend into another low.
The irony is that those who want to see the corrupt put behind bars are also having too high an expectation on the PMX – perhaps no other PMs have made such a promise and have the political will to fight corruption.
The only one close to that was Tun Abdullah Badawi who unfortunately was unable to get to the bottom of it all.
There are also those who think that the PMX is helping the B40 too much and neglecting the T20. They fail to understand that the B40 community has always been neglected, and the moment they have the disposable income, it will eventually benefit the T20. They should just be patient to allow the PMX to do his job.
For Anwar to be an effective PM, he has to be given room to act and the time to nurse his wounds.
His frequent visits on the ground to touch base with the people is important but what is more important is the implementation of long-term policies that will impact the livelihood of the people. Malaysia must be a better Malaysia for all Malaysians beyond PMX.
Therefore, it is important that if Malaysians want to have a better Malaysia, Anwar should be given space to act as well as room and time to nurse his wounds from the aftershocks that the Malays have seemingly deserted the PH-BN alliance as per the outcome of the six state polls.
Someone who is psychologically tormented can become a wounded tiger – and a wounded tiger can be a dangerous animal. – Aug 21, 2023
